Sapphire Andrews
by DarkAngelPixie711
Summary: Sapphire is a sad girl with a bad habit so what happens when the a Cullen notices it? It will take more than just friends like Bella, Alice, and Renesmee to help Sapphire say no. Influence from beyond the grave and a certain peppy werewolf are needed!
1. Sapphire Andrews

1_**Sapphire Andrews**_

**Renesmee's POV**

The smell of fresh blood startled me almost as much as the sound of skin tearing. Lunch time had just ended, and we hunted last night so I didn't even need to hold my breath, but the scent bothered me. It shouldn't be here. Okay, maybe I over dramatized, but the girl's bathroom isn't exactly the place for blood. Yes, I know all about menstrual cycles, I even had one for a few years, but the scents were totally different. I'm talking about veins opening and spilling blood. Not usually a good thing!

I walked out of the bathroom, and immediately went to class. Dad could pick this from my mind, and I could tell the others my way. Advanced Chemistry was boringly easy anyway.

"It may have been an accident," whispered Dad, as soon as I sat down. I nodded, and let the subject drop. He'd already told mom, Alice, Jasper, and Jake. I turned my attention to my husband. He smiled at me like the sun was shining high in the sky instead of hiding behind vicious storm clouds. The tardy bell rang, and Mr. Houk walked toward the front of the class, just as a girl walked through the door.

"I'm sorry, Mr. Houk," she said nervously. "I almost forgot my book."

She had a large stack of books in her arms. Mr. Houk smiled slightly and asked her to take a seat. She started toward a table with a small group, but one of the preppy guys stuck his foot in the aisle at the last second and tripped her. I was enraged. I got up, and helped her, cursing the jerk in perfect Latin. She couldn't hear me of course, but my family could.

"Hey, I'm Renesmee Black! What's your name?" I asked. She looked surprised.

"Sapphire Andrews," she replied timidly.

"Would you like to sit with me and my family today?" I asked. She looked nervous, but nodded. As we stood, I caught the scent of blood and Neosporin. This was the same blood I had smelled in the bathroom. I forced myself not to look confused, and placed her books next to mine on the table. When we sat down, I introduced her to everyone at our table.

"Okay, Sapphire, this is my boyfriend, Jacob Wolfe, my twin brother, Edward Black, his girlfriend, Bella Cullen, her adoptive sister, Alice Cullen, and Alice's boyfriend, Jasper Hale." I pointed to each of them in turn. "Everyone, this is Sapphire Andrews."

They greeted her enthusiastically. Dad looked worried, though. I flashed him a quizzical look, and he whispered, low and quick, "I can't hear her thoughts, but I can smell her blood. Is this the girl from the bathroom?" I nodded minutely. Only few seconds had passed.

Mr. Houk took control of the class, and sent the jerk to the principal's office. We went to the lab and did titrations. It was mildly interesting, but I spent most of the time talking to Sapphire. By the time class ended, we had already decided that, if it was okay with her parents, she was spending the night tomorrow.

The rest of the day passed by quickly. Soon, we were in mom's Ferrari- her new that dad got her for their last anniversary- and speeding off toward home. As soon as I got through the door, I gave Gamma- that's what I call Grandma Esme (it was the only thing that didn't make her feel old)- the low down on the entire day.

"Jake's going to have to sleep in a different room, then," she said evenly. Keeping up appearances sucked sometimes.

"Well, that was the plan in the first place. The sleep-over is going to be in Aunt Alice's room, and the boys are going camping!" I said enthusiastically. Mom and Dad walked up.

"I'm going to call Seth and see if he wants to come. I think he gets bored now that there's no threat of impending doom," Dad mused. Mom laughed. I loved that laugh. Dad looked at me with a smile and sighed. "Me, too!" I rolled my eyes.

"Okay, we have an agenda to plan! Aunt Alice, keep in mind that some of us do need sleep, please!" I said pleadingly. She huffed a sigh.

"All right, fine, we'll only stay up until three," she said, looking a little subdued. I smiled a big smile, and we ran to Aunt Alice's room. There was a lot to plan!


	2. Chapter 2

1_**Sleep-over**_

**Renesmee's POV**

I was so excited when the final bell rang. It was party time! Sapphire met me in the parking lot, and we put her stuff in the trunk. Tonight was going to be so fun. She seemed thrilled about it. Again, I caught the scent of blood and Neosporin near her left arm. I shook of the thought, though.

Before long, we had parked in the garage. Sapphire let out a gasp of shock.

"Your house looks amazing!" she exclaimed.

"Thank you," I said enthusiastically. Her eyes were wide. "Do you want a tour?" I asked. She nodded. I giggled, and we rushed to the front door.

"Esme," I said as we walked through the front door. "This is my friend, Sapphire Andrews. Sapphire, this is my adoptive mother, Esme Cullen, and her husband, my adoptive father, Carlisle Cullen."

"It's so nice to meet you, Sapphire. Renesmee has told us a lot about you!" Esme said.

"You have a beautiful home, Mrs. Cullen! This place is gorgeous!" she gushed.

"Thank you, Sapphire. You may call me Esme," Gamma replied.

"And you may call me Carlisle," Grandpa replied. "Make yourself at home."

Grandpa kissed Gamma on the cheek and went to his office. Aunt Alice dragged us up the stairs, and the boys followed.

"What are you doing?" Alice asked sharply.

"We're waiting on Seth, and I want to see Bella before I leave," Dad replied innocently. Sapphire giggled lightly but we all heard it.

"I'm sorry," she said. "My dad used to be like that. It was always so funny. He and his buddies would plan weekend fishing trips, and the night before my dad would take my mom out to a romantic dinner. That, or he'd cook for her. They were deeply in love, but then my mom passed away two years ago. She had breast cancer. And before you say anything consoling, I do miss her, but she's in Heaven and she's not in pain so it's better this way. Besides, I carry her with me everywhere I go. She left me her Bible, and I still have a stuffed animal that she gave me when I was nine or ten."

We all had looks of shock on our faces. Mom was the first to speak up, though.

"Losing a parent is hard," she said. "I lost both of mine within a few years of each other as well as the step-parents I had. My parents were divorced, and both of them ended up remarrying."

"My parents are gone, too," Jake said. Come to think of it, I was the only one in the room with both parents still alive! Dad looked at me with a smile. I went over to them and put a hand on each of their shoulders, showing them my way just how much I loved them. "Carlisle and Esme are amazing though. If it weren't for them, Edward, and Bella, I never would've met Nessie."

"Rose had a hand in that too, you know," Mom said.

"Sure, sure," he replied.

"So how did you meet?" Sapphire asked us.

"It's pretty simple really," Jake said. "When I saw her the first time, I took one look and never looked away. Edward and Bella introduced us."

I had to force myself to keep a straight face because, technically, he wasn't lying! A loud clap of thunder sounded off, scaring the hell out of me in the process, and was immediately followed by a sudden down pour of rain. Jake and Dad groaned, and I could hear Emmett cussing downstairs.

"There goes the camping trip," Jasper grumbled.

"I guess you'll just have to join the sleepover," Alice said slyly. She'd known all along that it was going to rain, apparently. Her comment brightened their moods considerably. All of the sudden, Dad glared at Jake. Mom took one look at them and rolled her eyes. She was about to get onto to Dad when Seth bounded up the stairs.

"Hey guys, are we camping in the rain or…" he trailed off, eyes wide. I followed his gaze to the quiet girl standing next to me. Dad smiled, but then grimaced. Sapphire blushed a deep red and let her hair fall over her face. Like some sort of robot, Seth walked forward and tucked the fallen strands behind her ear. She looked a little scared.

Jake snapped his fingers right in front of Seth's face. He jumped a little, and then seemed to realize what was going on. Exhaling deeply, he said, "I'm sorry about that. My name is Seth Clearwater."

"I'm Sapphire Andrews. Would you mind explaining that because, no offense, it was a little creepy?" she said.

"I actually have to, so no problem. Do you want to sit on the porch swing?" he asked.

"Sure," she replied nervously. They walked out of Aunt Alice's room, and the rest of us celebrated silently! This was going to be an awesome sleep over!!!


	3. The Gem and Her Wolf

1_**The Gem and Her Wolf**_

**Sapphire's POV**

This was all a little weird. I mean, hello, he was staring at me like a man who'd just seen the sun for the very first time in his life. It was creepy. Besides, who would want to look at me that way? If he saw my arms, I'd bet he'd never look at me again.

"So, what was that about? Do you do that to everyone, or was that just a one time creepy occurrence for you?" I asked. He took a deep breath.

"I don't know how to explain this one properly. Okay, um, how open-minded are you about mythology and legends?" Seth asked, looking a little scared.

"I used to be obsessed with vampires, werewolves, and pixies, but now I don't bother with them much. When my mom was still alive, we wrote stories about them together," I replied.

"But did you believe that they existed?" he asked. It sounded like he was prompting me or something.

"Only when my mother read to me about them," I answered truthfully. He bit his lip. I smiled. "So are you obsessed with myth and legend so much that you think I'm something along those lines, or what?"

He shook his head laughing. "No, you're not a myth or legend, but you're on the right track," he said. I was beginning to get frustrated when he sighed. "I didn't really like this outfit anyway."

I gave him a confused look. He gave me a wary one. "Please, don't freak out, and please don't have a heart attack. This is going to be a bit shocking, but I can't think an easier way for this that's believable." He looked up. "A little help would be nice, Jasper, please!"

He kicked off his shoes, and jumped off the porch. After stepping back, he began to run across the yard, and then jumped into the air. It was as if he had exploded into fur. One second I was looking at a seemingly normal teenage boy, and the next I was staring at a gigantic wolf. No, a gigantic werewolf! I opened my mouth but I couldn't scream.

A bundle of cloth flew out of an upstairs window, and he caught it in his teeth, and walked into the woods. A few seconds later, Seth the human bounded back up the porch steps. My eyes widened as I watched him. I still couldn't utter a sound.

"I'm a werewolf, Sapphire, and there's this really weird thing that werewolves do called imprinting. It's how wolves find… it's sort of a… it's how werewolves find their soul mates; the person their meant to be with," he finally spat out. If my eyes had been wide before, they were baseballs now! I felt a weird calming influence flood over me. My eyes returned to their normal size, and I took a very deep breath. "I guess you could refer to it as a love at first sight kind of thing, but it's more powerful than that. It creates an urge to protect. It's like gravity isn't holding you on the Earth anymore. And I imprinted on you so it's like you're holding me to Earth now."

The calm flooding me didn't cease at these words. Okay, so I had a soul mate, and he could turn into a humongous wolf. Big deal, right? His eyes were hopeful, though. Hopeful that I wouldn't run away screaming, probably. Who wouldn't run? I guess I wouldn't, seeing as I didn't. I wondered if he would run from me, though.

"So, how do the Cullens feel about having a werewolf around?" I asked. He laughed.

"I'm not the only one with secrets, but before you jump to conclusions the only other wolf at this house is Jake! The Cullens are something else, but that's their story. I only mentioned Jake because he's my pack Alpha. He imprinted on Renesmee a while back." He stopped talking for a little bit before nodding. "Okay, apparently I get to drop all of the bombshells today. Do you want to know what the Cullens are?"

"Um, duh, tell me, please! Wait, is it creepier than the wolf thing, no offense?" I asked. He shook his head, laughing slightly.

"That depends, are vampires creepier than werewolves?" he asked. I gasped. Whoa, vampires, I had not seen that one coming. I was thinking maybe they turned into some sort of animal, too. Wow, note to self, don't cut at the Cullens' house!

"Isn't this the part where I should be screaming and running away?" I asked curiously.

"You can thank Jasper for the calming effect. He's an empath. As a matter of fact, about half of the Cullens are gifted. Alice is clairvoyant, but she can't see Renesmee or werewolves. Edward is a telepath. Renesmee can share her thoughts via physical touch. Bella is a very powerful shield. She can extend it out from herself to protect the minds around her from invasion. It keeps Edward from getting inside her head, but he finds it a bit frustrating."

"This is really weird. Um, it's kind of cold. Do you want to go back inside?" I asked, suddenly realizing that my goose bumps weren't solely the result of his story. He nodded and put his arm around my shoulder. I was a little creeped out, but when he saw the look on my face he frowned.

"Sorry, you said you were cold, and my body temperature is a little higher than 98.6BF," he explained apologetically. Like a gentleman, he opened the door for me. I didn't feel like my reactions made me deserve the respect.

"I wouldn't give that feeling a voice, if I were you. You could've ran away from him screaming, and he wouldn't feel any different about you; except maybe a bit hurt," Jasper said. "If you'd like, I can withdraw my influence and let you feel your own emotions."

"We could try that," I said, and immediately I felt the calm withdraw. It was replaced by a sense of wonder and horror as I realized that I was in a room with nine vampires and two werewolves. I was going to die. My eyes flitted to the door, but I couldn't run.

"Nobody's going to hurt you, if that's what you're thinking," Jasper said. For some reason, I believed him.

"Okay, so do I get to hear more of an explanation because I'm starting to wonder why a vampire would invite a human over to her house if no harm was going to be inflicted?" I asked. Renesmee put on a face that seemed close to pouting.

"Well, for starters, I guess we should come clean about some things," Renesmee said, smiling. "My family and I only drink the blood of animals. I am only a half-vampire, by the way. My mother was human when I was conceived. And on the subject of parents, Carlisle and Esme aren't really my adoptive parents. As a matter of fact, my biological parents are Edward and Bella. We decided that there's too close of a resemblance between me and Dad to be considered a fluke so we pretend to be twins."

"But, you look the same age as each other!" I exclaimed.

"Well, Dad became a vampire when he was seventeen, and Mom had me when she was three days shy of nineteen, then she became a vampire. Now, neither of them age, and I stopped aging when I reached this level of maturity."

"How old are you?" I asked, suddenly curious. This time Edward answered me.

"I will be 200 next month. Bella is 120. Renesmee is 101. Jake is 118. Jasper is 256. Alice is roughly 230 give or take a decade. Carlisle is over 500. Esme is about 203. Emmett is about 170. Rosalie is about 180."

I turned to Seth. "So how old are you?" I asked. He took a deep breath.

"I'm 115 give or take one or two years," he said quietly. My eyes widened, as they'd been doing all night, but I laughed slightly as a memory from a few years back came to me. Everyone looked at me like I was crazy.

"My Aunt Teresa once said that the women of my family always did have a thing for older men. I think I've got all of them beat, though!" I explained. Emmett cracked up laughing. Seth smiled wide, showing all of his teeth. I had to admit, he was pretty sexy. Edward shot me a frustrated look again.

"Your mind is as silent as Bella's!" he said with a slight hiss behind his tone. I laughed, and the realized something. He couldn't read my mind so that meant he didn't know my problem. I smiled at him.

"Trust me," I said sincerely. "You don't want to hear my thoughts."

"Considering the way you were looking at Seth earlier, I'm sure I don't!" he replied back. Emmett laughed again. Great, I was in a house with perverted vampires!

"That's not what I meant, and I'm not that kind of person, okay?" I said with a little bit of venom. For crying out loud, I didn't even know Seth. Just then I really wanted to go into the bathroom and cut, but I couldn't. They would know. They would smell my blood and someone might get ideas. Nevertheless, I knew another cut was inevitable.

Alice gasped. "Sapphire," she said, her face contorting with pain and disappointment. Edward gasped a second later. He looked at me with incredulous eyes. They knew. How did they know?

"What did you see Alice?" Seth asked, freaking out extremely. That's when I remembered that Alice could see the future. I looked at him with sad eyes, and then looked at Alice and Edward.

"You know, don't you?" I asked, looking straight at Alice. "You saw what I was just planning didn't you?"

She nodded solemnly. "Not a word," I begged. She and Edward both nodded. "I know what she saw," I said to Seth. "Follow me."

He nodded and followed as I made my way toward the garage. He closed the door behind him when he walked in.

"Will you please look at the wall for a second?" I asked. He turned around. I took off my hoodie, and then my long-sleeve shirt so that my chest was still covered by my tank-top, but my arms were bare- exposing all of my scars. I looked down at the floor and whispered, "Turn around."

I could feel his eyes roaming over every little line of scab or scar tissue. He reached out and gently ran his hand down my arm. I looked up and saw that his eyes were wide and pained.

"Why?" he asked. His tone matched his expression to a tee. I felt the tears building up. "What happened?"

I shrugged. "Life just hurts. I think my mom's death is what pushed me over the edge, but I can't be sure. It was somewhere in that time frame. I'm sorry. I was never proud of what I did, but now I feel even worse about it. The only friends I have think I'm crazy."

"You're not crazy!" he insisted. "Besides, Alice, Edward, and I are the only ones who know any details. You may be a little depressed, but you are not crazy. And I will do anything I can to make you happy. That's what I'm here for; keeping you safe and making you happy."

Tears were flowing from rapidly from my eyes when he pulled me into his arms. Seth just let me cry all over his shirt, and told me everything would be okay. And you know what, I believed him!


	4. Inspiration and a Game of Twister

1_**Inspiration and a Game of Twister**_

**Sapphire's POV**

We walked back to the house. The rain had died down, but I was still almost soaked. Alice dragged me upstairs and gave me something long-sleeved to wear.

"Thank you, Alice," I said quietly. I was about to continue when she held up a finger.

"If you don't want the entire house to know, don't talk about it out loud. Vampires and werewolves have excellent hearing. The garage wouldn't have been far enough away to be out of earshot if it weren't for the rain," she told me.

"Okay," I murmured. I was having one of those walk-out-of-class-without-permission-and-cut moments, but I held it back remembering the pain on Alice and Edward's faces after Alice's vision, and worst of all the pain on Seth's face. He explained a lot more about werewolves, and to be honest it seemed pretty cool.

Walking back down the stairs, I thought about my mother. She was so full of excitement and life. Even the cancer never got her down. She passed away with a smile on her face, and her last words hanging in the air. "Let your imagine run wild, my gem." She has always called me her gem.

I saw my backpack by the couch and had an idea.

"Is there a computer I could use for a little bit?" I asked Carlisle. He nodded and ran from the room only to reappear seconds later with a laptop in hand. I stood there stunned.

"I'm sorry," he said sincerely. "I should have moved more slowly."

I shook my head. "It's fine. I've just never seen anyone move that fast in my life."

Carlisle handed me the laptop. I sat on the couch and opened up my bag. The small zippered compartment held an item infinitely precious to me: my mother's flash drive. I plugged it in waited for it to load.

"What all is on there?" Seth asked, sitting down beside me.

"These are the stories my mother and I wrote together," I whispered. He smiled at me encouragingly. This guy must really like smiling. Edward laughed before looking confused. He cocked his head to the side, and then turned to Bella. She grinned impishly.

"So that's why I couldn't hear her thoughts!" he exclaimed.

"It's Emmett's fault! Remember the last time we played Truth or Dare? He dared me to prank you because I'm the only one who can pull it off and completely get away with it!" she said. Edward turned his glare to Emmett who began laughing so hard the floor shook.

I turned back to the laptop and opened up the story I had been working on for the last three months. It was called The Great Escape. Iridescka Wright was a cutter like myself. Under my story ideas, I changed the middle name of Iridescka's best friend, Toby, from Hugh to Seth and hit 'save'.

"So what part does Toby play is this book?" Seth asked, noticing that I had used his name.

"Toby is Iridescka's best friend. He's been in love with her ever since her dad died," I explained. "He wants to protect her from getting hurt even if it means protecting her from herself; which he also does. The first time Iri ever cuts herself, she gets caught by Toby and ends up crying into his shoulder. Right then and there he silently vows that he will never hurt her. This happens before the story begins, though!"

"You have a good idea of how the whole imprinting thing works," Edward commented. "And, if you don't mind me saying so, I like where you're going with the story. You take certain aspects of your life and plug them in, but it's not strictly modeled after you."

"An author never has problems with compliments," I assured him. "I like how I've put this story together, too. Some of it doesn't exactly show a group of perfectly innocent teenagers, but it doesn't have to."

Renesmee rested her hand on my shoulder.

_According to Dad, letting Uncle Seth read Chapter Three might be a bad idea._

I jumped when I heard Renesmee's voice in my mind, but then I remembered what Seth had said about her ability. I thought about Chapter Three. Oh, yes, Toby takes her blade, confesses his love, and they do not-so-innocent things. Again, the words 'perverted vampires' sprang to mind. Edward gave me a stern look before spacing out.

"Interesting," he and Alice said in unison.

"I hate it when they do that," Jacob complained. "What did you see this time, Alice?"

"What does the 'C.M.' of your pseudonym stand for?" Edward asked. I gasped.

"Callie Marie," I replied. "My pseudonym is my mother's full name before she got married to my dad."

"I can see why you would want to publish under that name," Alice said. "I guess you've been inspired again because I saw just saw your book in Barnes & Noble!"

"I get my book published," I said incredulously. Alice nodded. I stared off into space. This was awesome! I would've gladly remained day dreaming, but suddenly a box was being waved in front of my face.

"Let's play Twister," Emmett begged loudly. Seth started laughing. The sound was so infectious that I couldn't help but join in. Seth picked me up and we ran to the game room. It was huge. The entire basement was one room with video games in every corner, board games and cards inside a table by a long wall, and a gigantic Twister mat in the center of the room.

"That's your Twister mat," I mused with wide eyes.

"It's so we all can play at the same time," Emmett explained. "This was is more fun. Me and Rose rigged up a voice activated spinner. You say your name, it stores your voice, then when it's your turn, you say, 'spin'."

"That seems simple enough," I commented politely. Emmett hit a button on the touch screen.

"Let's see," he murmured. "Carlisle, Esme, Alice, Jasper, Rose, me, Edward, Bella, Nessie, Jake, Seth, and Sapphire. Sweet, we have twelve players. Okay, here we go!"

A computer voice emanated from the machine.

"Player One?" it asked.

"Emmett."

"Player Two?"

"Rosalie."

"Player Three?"

"Carlisle."

"Player Four?"

"Esme."

"Player Five?"

"Alice."

"Player Six?"

"Jasper."

"Player Seven?"

"Edward."

"Player Eight?"

"Bella."

"Player Nine?"

"Nessie."

"Player Ten?"

"Jake."

"Player Eleven?"

"Seth."

"Player Twelve?"

"Sapphire," I said, awestruck. The technology was amazing.

"Players ready," the computer said. "Emmett, left foot green."

The game went on like normal, except for the talking, computer spinner. The Cullens fought dirty. I had to avert my eyes when Renesmee started kissing Jake, but eventually he fell.

"Out," he growled at the computer. That must've been how you warned the computer to skip you because it didn't call his name again.

I wasn't brave enough to try distracting Seth. Despite all the space on the mat, we all got tangled up. The vampires were obviously not tired at all, but I was almost worn out.

"Sapphire, right hand red," the computer said. I had to reach under Jasper for the nearest red dot, but I didn't fall.

I turned to smile at Jasper. "Please, don't fall," I requested. He grinned.

"Don't worry," he assured me. "Nobody'd knock me down on someone squishable." He started to laugh but cut off with an intake of breath.

"Jasper!" Edward said warningly. It was too late though. I felt a sharp pain on the back of my neck that felt like blades cutting into my flesh. The sensation seemed out of place. Within seconds they were gone, but my neck burned. The fire was spreading, and it hurt so bad I had to scream. I could hear Seth calling my name.

"Sapphire!" he yelled in alarm. "NO! Carlisle do something!"

"I see her," Alice said, sounding calm. "She's a vampire."

"NO!" Seth yelled again. "She's in pain! Carlisle help her!"

I screamed again. The sound drowned out his pleading. I tried to look around. Carlisle's face looked resigned.

"The bite is too close to her heart. There's nothing I can do to stop the venom," he said quietly. "I'm sorry, Seth. She will still live. As for the pain, in three days the transformation will be over."

"I'll go talk to Jasper," Edward offered. "He's beating himself up pretty bad. Oh no, Bella will you join me. He's remembering your 18th birthday party."

I heard someone take a deep, shaky breath. "Tell him," Seth began, he cut off like it was hard to say. "Tell him, it's not his fault. I should've known better. I should've protected her like I'm supposed to."

"It's not your fault, either, Seth," Renesmee said.

I couldn't believe what I was hearing. I was becoming a vampire. Jasper had bit me. Vampires were venomous. Seth was blaming himself. I clamped my jaws shut, holding back another scream.

"My fault," I gasped, trying to hide the pain. "Cut this morning. Too deep. Bleeding barely stopped."

I could see Renesmee, Jake, Carlisle, and Esme staring at me in shock.

"Are you a cutter, Sapphire?" Carlisle asked. I nodded, knowing that if I opened my mouth I would scream. A flash of sorrow crossed their faces.

"Carry her to my office, Seth," Carlisle said. "Stay with her. She needs you. The next three days aren't going to be very pleasant."

Three days, my mind screamed. Carlisle looked at me.

"Sapphire, the burning feeling running through your veins won't stop for roughly 72 hours. When it stops, so will your heart. Your eyes will be blood red. You will be strong. You will be a vampire. I'm sorry. There is no turning back."

A tear slid down my face. I felt myself being lifted from the floor. Soft lips kissed the tear away.

"I'm sorry," he apologized over and over. When I next summoned some control, I shook my head.

"My fault," I repeated. "Shouldn't have cut."

He hugged me close to him and hummed what sounded like a Native American lullaby while I fought the urge to scream. I was a masochist. Pain was my thing. I could handle this. I didn't need to hurt him by sharing my pain. So I stayed silent, closing my eyes. The next time I opened them, dust motes were swirling through the air, and I could see everything.


End file.
